Project Overview
We are currently conducting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce illness and death due to extreme heat.
What is the intervention?
The intervention is a facilitated engagement between city and county health departments and researchers using the Chart Tool. Chart is an online tool that provides data on heat-health risks at a highly local scale, for both historical and future conditions. It also provides tailored policymakers with suggested risk reduction activities, based on local factors, and information about the efficacy, timing, and cost of each intervention.
The facilitated engagement will involve an introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers with researchers regarding heat and health risk, and focused discussion with researchers regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs.
How will you study the effectiveness of the intervention?
We have recruited 30 city and county health departments from across the continental U.S. We will assess the breadth and effectiveness of each health department’s activities to reduce health risks in extreme heat. Our assessment will leverage an established framework for evaluating interventions, the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework.
Half of the departments will be randomly assigned to the intervention group, and the other half to the control group. The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. The control group will receive information about extreme heat and health, but not a facilitated engagement with the tool.
After one year, we will reassess the breadth and effectiveness of each department's activities to reduce health risks in extreme heat. We will also conduct interviews with individuals in the intervention group to identify barriers and facilitators of Chart implementation.
What are the anticipated outcomes and impacts of the intervention?
- This study will provide better understanding of how local health departments can implement Chart, and how scientists can support health departments in using the tool.
- This study will also develop a novel framework for using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM framework).
- The results of this study will support future implementation science research related to extreme heat and health.